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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

While i mostly disagree with CM's comments again, i disagree more strongly that Slackware is a distribution to watch out for in 2013.
While Slackware is the best linux distribution, even today, it is true that is partly stuck in the 90's.

How about backward compatibility up to 90's?

Quote:

It contains many applications, like xxgdb for example which haven't been touched since 1995

Agree, the necessary "bloat" may fool some newbies into using old,unmaintained applications.
However, it should be a corner/minor issue.
To think anyone would eager to touch any application which is far from "modern",
he/she must have some knowledge on behalf.
User-friendliness shouldn't be a problem, it is just marketing fail.

Quote:

, while at the same time lacking some modern applications/features most other distributions have had for years.

Maybe i miss something but tetex->texlive is the only one i can think of.
I guess that the policy(if any) of the official package tree is to add the general purpose applications only.
If you want "modern" but profession-specific tools,
say,if you want CAD,Blender,Sage..etc. These can be done in slackbuilds.org.
The official tree seems to provide something like DE,emacs,*nix-ish tools,
common setup of mail/http/ftp server and such,that is,general purpose.
On software development,it shouldn't be lacking.
First of all,it is the most friendly source distro you can have.
Secondly,cant we see the trend today?
python->pip, ruby->gems, Common lisp->quicklisp, Haskell->Cabal, Emacs lisp->ELPA ...etc.
Jeez,doesn't a package manager become far more friendly for rigorous development/testing if it is more "barebone"?
At the end of the day, Slackware maybe a perfect solution for modern development.
Package manager like Nix, the complete opposite, while trying hard on consistency,
not only complicate the management even further, but may also show add more constraint or unnecessity.

Yet, cant agree more with that,
On the marketing point of view, completeness is crucial.

Quote:

IMO this is the most important fact that prevents Slackware from reaching a wider user base which would lead to much better and more frequent press coverage.
It is a fact that Slackware today is a follower of every innovation or advancement that comes out of linux. While most things that happen today are leading towards Windows or Mac behaviour emulation, Slackware is eventually forced to incorporate some of them. Due to the fact that Slackware is diverging more and more from every other linux distribution, it makes it harder and harder to maintain, not to mention its slowly but gradually moving away from its roots, goals and philosophy, without it being entirely its fault.
That's why Slackware as it is now is not 'watch out' material, but the exact opposite.

Regardless, it is so uncool to keep bringing up this matter...
Squeezing out as much good,slackware-ish applications as we can, seems to be the best strategy?

It contains many applications, like xxgdb for example which haven't been touched since 1995

Just because there is not a release version since 1995 doesn't mean the version you run in Slackware is from 1995, in fact it is patched by patches sourced from other distros. So if other distros have it then shouldn't we have it also?

Quote:

while at the same time lacking some modern applications/features most other distributions have had for years.

With the improvements in auto-detection of hardware and the auto-configuring of X, Slackware really isn't that difficult to use. I remember when I first used it and I had to edit /etc/fstab to mount a USB drive. Nowadays, Slackware with KDE pretty much auto-detects everything.

Just because there is not a release version since 1995 doesn't mean the version you run in Slackware is from 1995, in fact it is patched by patches sourced from other distros. So if other distros have it then shouldn't we have it also?

The original source is still from 1995 no matter how many patches you apply to it.
Have you tried using xxgdb by any chance? When i execute it, from a terminal because desktop files weren't used back then get an error message about 'no available ptys' or similar.

Your argument is very logical but lets not forget that the other distros you are referring to are offering other options along with xxgdb. In Slackware it is the only one. And its ugly, old and featureless comparing to modern alternatives.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildwizard

Gnome can stay dead, along with anything from Pottering.

Slackware is missing more than just GNOME.
Come to think of it the most exciting thing that happened during the 13.37 -> 14.0 release cycle was the inclusion of NetworkManager and GTK+3 which are both GNOME technologies, maybe along with the XFCE split.

edit: Talking about press coverage i just bumped into this: http://igurublog.files.wordpress.com.../mag-cover.jpg
, the cover of the next issue of a linux magazine in the UK.
It doesnt even have the Slackware logo on it while theres some derivatives there in those ~30 distributions.

I will immediately
su -
rm -rf
apt get install ubuntu
or maybe click the mouse 1000 times to install win8
This nearly 65 year old TRS-80 user certainly does not want to be stuck in the 90's

john

im almost 60 and i love slackware. As far as being stuck in the 90's it was a good decade for linux, lots of possibilities and tools that allowed you to use linux the way you wanted to and to build it into something personal that fit your needs. And slackware still has that, along with the latest and greatest available in the linux world. I guess all that flexibility just confuses some of these younguns.
Imo slackware needs more cartoony icons as an aid to youngsters with limited attention spans.

EDIT: geez, thinking about it, maybe slackware is the codger distro, maybe i should switch to ubuntu and start lying about my age.

Have you tried using xxgdb by any chance? When i execute it, from a terminal because desktop files weren't used back then get an error message about 'no available ptys' or similar.

Your argument is very logical but lets not forget that the other distros you are referring to are offering other options along with xxgdb. In Slackware it is the only one. And its ugly, old and featureless comparing to modern alternatives.

There is a patch (blogspot.com) to correct the issue. Anyway I think it is a nice decent small X front end to gdb for c programing
Not sure how good it is for other languages though.

im almost 60 and i love slackware. As far as being stuck in the 90's it was a good decade for linux, lots of possibilities and tools that allowed you to use linux the way you wanted to and to build it into something personal that fit your needs. And slackware still has that, along with the latest and greatest available in the linux world. I guess all that flexibility just confuses some of these younguns.
Imo slackware needs more cartoony icons as an aid to youngsters with limited attention spans.

EDIT: geez, thinking about it, maybe slackware is the codger distro, maybe i should switch to ubuntu and start lying about my age.